Culture

  • When the political becomes personal

    When the political becomes personal Diving for PearlsBy Katherine ThomsonDirected by Adam CookWith Deborah Kennedy, Danny Adcock, Steve Rodgers, Cornelia Frances and Sacha HorlerEnsemble Theatre, KirribilliUntil July 4. Review by Allen Myers

  • Third World debt for beginners

    Pillaged Lives: Third World Debt and Global InstitutionsCD-RomSocial Justice Committee of MontrealSystem requirements: PC 486 or higher; Windows 3.1/95; 8mb RAM; VGA 256 coloursSend Can$25 to SJCM, 1857 de Maisonneuve O., Suite 320, Montreal, QC. H3H

  • Taking on the bovver boys

    Taking on the bovver boys Cleary, IndependentBy Phil ClearyHarperCollins, 1998. 298 pp, $19.95 (pb) Review by Phil Shannon Phil Cleary, a product of a Christian Brothers schooling, could have been expected to know all about human sin and divine

  • Poem: Maureen

    Maureen You ask me not to clench my fiststo hold my anger down.You ask me not to purse my lipsnor swear nor wear a frown.You tell me — let my anger gothat I should reconcile that it is me that I must knowto feel at one, and smile. It's not what

  • When Ol' Blue Eyes was pink

    Amongst all the homages to Frank Sinatra that have saturated the media since his death, the Sinatra who did not always break bread with Republicans, hang out with the Mafia, insult women or sing anthems celebrating individualism,

  • Reith orders troops on to waterfront

    In a shock move today, the federal government ordered troops on to the waterfront of the national capital, Canberra. Workplace relations minister Peter Reith announced that the judges of the High Court, on the shores of Lake Burley Griffin, were to

  • Joke of the week

    Joke of the week Modern management practice has just added new insight to an age-old question: When we have a half glass of water, is it half empty or half full? Down the ages it was answered thus: half empty if you were a pessimist; half full if

  • Poem: A politician's conversation with an asylum seeker

    A politician's conversation with an asylum seeker You want what!To stay in Australia?You reckon you're a refugeebecause Indonesia invaded your countryand you fled across the Timor Sea?Brothers murdered,sisters raped,mother jailedand father

  • Portraying the stolen generations

    Portraying the stolen generations In the Interest of Bennelong is an evocative display of photographs, text and indigenous art around the themes of the “stolen generation” — acknowledgment, unity and commitment. The exhibition will be

  • The many facets of love

    Savage/Love Directed by Deborah Johnston When the World Was Green (A Chef's Fable) Directed by Diana Denley Belvoir Street Theatre, Sydney Until June 7   Review by Sue Boland Two plays by Sam Shephard and Joseph Chaikin

  • The poverty of social democracy

    The poverty of social democracy Civilising Global Capital: New thinking for Australian LaborBy Mark LathamAllen & Unwin, 1998. 391 pp., $24.95 Review by Allen Myers Mark Latham is the federal member for Werriwa, Gough Whitlam's old seat, and